Students from middle school through university frequently offer empirical justifications on proof tasks, though empirical arguments become rare among advanced mathematics majors¶
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Evidence · 1 study · reviewr2·q2
Currency · newest study 2013 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person
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q2 i? The review reports that middle school students provided empirical justifications 36% to 81% of the time depending on task, secondary students 34-43% of the time, and first-year university students roughly 40% of the time. → Keith Weber 2013
Evidence¶
Keith Weber 2013¶
Keith Weber, Matthew Inglis & Juan Pablo Mejia-Ramos. (2013). How mathematicians obtain conviction: Implications for mathematics instruction and research on epistemic cognition. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2013.865527
q2 · i? · review · r2
The review reports this study, citing Knuth, Choppin, and Bieda: approximately 400 middle school children completed six justification tasks and gave empirical justifications 36% to 81% of the time. The review attributes the Healy and Hoyles and Recio and Godino rates similarly; the reviewed designs are not described beyond this.
"Knuth, Choppin, and Bieda (2009) presented approximately 400 middle school children with six justification tasks in number theory and found that students provided empirical justifications (i.e., they checked that these assertions were true for specific examples) 36% to 81% of the time, depending upon the task."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- Review reports students did not recognize the key points an exemplary lecturer presented in a proof — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
students-frequent-empirical-justifications |
title |
Students from middle school through university frequently offer empirical justifications on proof tasks, though empirical arguments become rare among advanced mathematics majors |
description |
Students from middle school through university frequently offer empirical justifications on proof tasks, though empirical arguments become rare among advanced mathematics majors |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
weak |
newest_evidence |
2013 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-22 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — keith-weber-2013 |
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